It’s All About Him XVII: Beautiful Jesus

He is beautiful as the beauty of which all other beauties speak

We obviously live in a stunningly beautiful world. Like the Mona Lisa is a tribute to Da Vinci’s beautiful mind and The Messiah is a tribute to the glorious soul of Handel, every atom and galaxy of the universe is a beautiful tribute to the glorious creativity and power of Almighty God. Romans 1:19-20 says, For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.

The visible world is a physical, tangible, expression of God’s invisible and spiritual qualities. What do we see? We see wondrous and glorious beauty—all of it speaking of God. He is the beauty behind all the beauty. The whole earth is full of his glory (Isaiah 6:3). But the Bible says that there was a reason God made the universe. Colossians 1:18 says, so that in everything [Jesus] might be preeminent. Or Romans 11:36 says, For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To him be glory forever.

While God is the beauty behind the beauty, there is one person in the Trinity specifically for whom and to whom all this was created. The Son, Jesus. Jesus is who this is primarily about. God is the beauty behind all beauty, but even more specifically, everything good and wonderful and beautiful in this world is speaking of the glorious and beautiful one, Jesus.

As you may know, this is a particular passion of mine, to help God’s people realize what all these wonders and pleasures are here for, and for us to see, taste, touch, and hear them say what they are really saying to our soul. They are messages from God, little glimpses into the infinite. Little tastes of what Jesus is like.

What do we think of the little tastes and sights and sounds? Amazingly wonderful! They take our breath away and we want more sunsets and mountain ranges and symphonies and marital intimacies and friendships and wedding anniversaries! But in terms of scale, these are microscopically small, compared to the majesty of Christ’s beauty. They seem big to us when they are all we’ve ever seen. It’s like Mount Baldy seems big until you drive through the Rockies and the moon seems bright until you see the sun and Cedar Lake seems big until you see an ocean.

Before God takes the veil away, unbelievers live for the little beauty and the little wonder. So they live for their lake house and the NFL season kickoff and sexual pleasure. But then God takes the veil away and suddenly Cedar Lake isn’t so big and Mount Baldy seems like a molehill. Why? We have seen his glory, glory as the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

How I long for us to live in this world like Christ-savoring theologians who enjoy him in everything good and beautiful and wonder-producing. O how I long to live that way.

©2013 Steve DeWitt. You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that: (1) you credit the author, (2) any modifications are clearly marked, (3) you do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction, (4) you include Bethel’s website address (www.bethelweb.org) on the copied resource.

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